Are you all ready for a brand-new, simple hot spot? Their service is Western, but their deliciousness is Eastern.
“Akwaaba” means “welcome” in a language called Akan. Welcome to the new Harlem restaurant Accra, boasting the best West African soul food served outside of West Africa. It is a newly located establishment doing business in Harlem that has opened just in time for your appetite.
This location was a few years in the making according to their next-door patron Kwamie, who runs a braid salon. Accra is a family-run business nestled between 123rd and 124th streets on Seventh Avenue, not very far from the Adam Clayton Powell State Office Building and next to a local embroidery business run by Berth called Sigui’s.
The Muhammad family is the owner of Accra. The menu says that if you are in the mood for some sweetly fried ripe plantains, spoonfuls of jolof rice or maybe some fried fish, fried chicken and an African-style salad complete with hard-boiled egg, then, well, you are in for a treat and then some. Their food is hot, the drinks are cold,and the experience is unlike any other, meaning authentic down to the bone.
Accra supplies the good stuff familiar to throngs of West Africans who laud its cuisine for its authenticity, which can only be duplicated in the kitchens of mothers and aunties back at home. It therefore satisfies the palate of many within the diaspora. So whether you have been to the motherland or not, its food will take you places you have never been to before and back. Don’t be afraid to eat with your hands; whatever works for you, my friend. Just be sure to pay in cold, hard cash, for here, plastic is reserved for utensils. You will get more than you bargained for and then some.
No stranger to success, Accra boasts two other locations already situated in the Bronx (located on Burnside Avenue and College Avenue). It was there where they honed their popularity prior to coming to Harlem, ready for additional success.
Akwaaba. Here, you are welcomed by the Muhammad family and associates.